Sunday, February 17, 2013

On Friday, Feb 15th 2013, a meteor rattled
Siberia injuring hundreds of people.The
earth has had many meteor strikes over the centuries but now a group of young scientists
and investors are working to develop a space telescope that would scan the
solar system for dangers.

Edward Lu, a
former NASA astronaut and Google executive leads a team called the B612
Foundation: “This is a wake-up call from space. We’ve got to pay attention to
what’s out there.”

Astronomers know of no asteroids or comets that pose a major
threat to the planet. But NASA estimates that fewer than 10 percent of the big
dangers have been discovered.

“Our job is to be the
first line of defense, and we take that very seriously,” James Green, the
director of planetary science at NASA headquarters, said in an interview Friday
after the Russian strike. “No one living on this planet has ever before been
hurt. That’s historic.” Dr. Green added
that the Russian episode was sure to energize scientists and that an analysis of the meteor’s remains could help reveal clues about future threats.

Planning is underway to launch a large telescope known as
Sentinel that can find 90 percent of the asteroids larger than 460 feet in
diameter that pass through the Earth’s part of the solar system. They also want
to discover smaller asteroids down to a diameter of 100 feet. The space telescope is to have a diameter of
20 inches.The system could be ready for
launching by 2017 or 2018. Click on the link below to watch a video about the Sentinel project.